"The only way to be totally free is through education" - Jose Marti
Topic 6: Community, Culture, and Media
A strong feeling of belonging can lead to a positive sense of self for adolescents. In modern times, technological connectivity means that the world is becoming ever-smaller and more accessible. For some teens this can be overwhelming as they may not see a place for themselves in the huge online community.
A sense of community has been related to good mental and physical health, but how do teens develop this secure idea of thier place in a larger community? One way that adolescents develop a collective identity is through participation in local comunity organizations. Exposure to a democratic group working towards a common goal allows young people the opportunity to recognize the importance of different viewpoints, build relationships with positive adult role models other than parents and teachers, and transfer thinking from "me"-focused to "we"-focused as they learn to put the needs of the group ahead of their own personal desires.
From the textbook and class notes, we can define culture as a relatively stable system of shared norms, beliefs, attitudes, values and behaviours that is transmitted from one generation to another. Many cultures have differing viewpoints when it comes to the value they place on individualism and collectivism. In class we discussed the cross-cultural investigations presented in the textbook. It is obvious that the characteristics that one culture may value highly may be seen as a disadvantage in another culture. Generally, North American cultures tend to value individuallism over collectivism while Asian cultures hold the opposing viewpoint. Individuals are not limited by the values of the mainstream culture to which they belong. A member of a collectivist culture may have individualistic motivations, just as a member of an individualistic culture may value the promotion of the collective.
Aside from collective or individual thinking, people may identify with or feel separation from their surrounding culture based on their ethnicity or social class. Individuals from a minority ethnicity or lower socioeconomic class may face difficulty in finding a place for themselves in the dominant mainstream culture. Furtherore, members of an ethnic minority are more likely to also be members of a lower social class which exacerbates the problem of identity and relation to the majority culture. According to our textbook, 13.3% of youth in Canada live in poverty. As a future teacher it is important to recognize the link between adolescent poverty and poor physical health, low academic achievement, increased risk of dropping out, increased anxiety and depression, among a number of other risk factors.
For Topic 6 we have been asked to address the question: How can you leverage online social networks/communities to help teens get involved in the real world?
I think as a starting point I would get my students to use social media in their regular classroom assignments in order to show them that social media can be used for things other than leasure socialization. I would encourage the learning development theory of connectivism where learning is directly linked to growing your network of resource people. I would also work my way up the SAMR model to develop new lesson plans related to global connections using social media as a medium for communication between my students and students elsewhere in the world. Perhaps in this way my students would be exposed to the inequalities other students face and have motivation for action. In line with the innovative spirit shown to us in the resources for learning this week, I would have my students create their own social change project and have them tall me how they will include social media and their network of resources to increase communication about their social issue. I would also challenge the students to start a hashtag trend in relation to their cause and award the students who manage to trend their tag.
Additional Resources:
Raising Children - Community activity: Getting teenagers involved
http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/community_activity_teenagers.html
A short article on the importance of community involvement to mental health in adolescents.
ASCD - The care and support of teenagers
A guide for teachers on how to build community within the classroom.
Reich, S. (2010). Adolescents' sense of community on Myspace and Facebook: A mixed-methods approach.
Journal of Community Psychology, 38(6), 688-705. Retreived from http://education.uci.edu/docs/Reich_JCOP_910.pdf
An analysis of cyber-communities and online identity in adolescents.